Perry picked for cabinet post he wanted to abolish

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry smiles as he leaves Trump Tower in New York.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry smiles as he leaves Trump Tower in...

WASHINGTON — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who famously forgot he wanted to abolish the Energy Department, was hailed Tuesday by conservatives and industry groups as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the $28 billion agency on the cutting edge of energy research and nuclear security.

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Democrats and environmental groups, meanwhile, chafed at what they see as an oil industry champion who, though a longtime governor, brings little technical expertise to the debates on climate change — which he questions — and the department’s core mission of securing nuclear stockpiles, including the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Although the nomination remains unofficial, industry sources and Texas Republicans close to the transition team made clear Tuesday that they expect Trump to nominate Perry, who presided over a Texas oil and gas boom in his 15 years as governor.

Even as the president-elect’s team in Trump Tower held off on a formal announcement — a pattern that has held up for several of Trump’s cabinet picks — his aides laid out the case for Perry, if not for his plan to dismantle the agency.

“We’re big fans of Governor Perry as somebody who did a fantastic job with the state of Texas,” said Trump spokesman Jason Miller. “As you talk about Texas’ economic revival, a lot of that had to do with the energy sector.”

But Miller and other Trump aides steered clear of Perry’s outspoken aim to abolish the Department of Energy, which some conservatives see as a relic of the Carter administration and the 1970s Arab oil embargo.

“Obviously, we talk about streamlining and reducing the size of government,” Miller said. “There are a number of approaches and ideas that (will) come forward after the president-elect is sworn in.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Perry’s Energy Department will be expected to take a sharp turn toward traditional forms of fossil fuel extraction, in contrast to the Obama administration under current Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist. It would also represent a break from the academic slant of the department under Obama. Moniz’s predecessor, Steven Chu, was a Nobel laureate who directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Tom Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, which opposed Perry on a number of ethics and environmental issues while he was governor, worries about what he sees and an infusion of “donor-driven politics” in the department.

“Perry has never been the brightest bulb in the chandelier, and he’s generally been short on details and long on retail politics,” Smith said. “We fear he will bring those same things to the Department of Energy.”

The cabinet-level agency Perry is slated to head is called the Energy Department. But its portfolio is far broader, with missions to oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production and storage of atomic wastes. The department also manages 17 national laboratories.

One of agency’s facilities is the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation’s only site where nuclear weapons are assembled and where about 300 weapons are disassembled yearly.

The appointment would mark a reversal of political fortunes for Perry, Texas' longest-serving governor, who twice has ran unsuccessfully for president. Before dropping out of the presidential race earlier this year to back Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Perry had denounced Trump as a “cancer on conservatism” and a “barking carnival act.”

But Perry, unlike Cruz, came on board the Trump campaign at the Republican National Convention in July, when he first publicly expressed interest in an administration post. At various times he has been seen as a candidate for defense secretary or head of Veterans Affairs, based on his background as an Air Force pilot.

Weighing on Perry’s side, a number of Texas Republicans and energy groups praised Perry’s experience in oil-rich Texas. Some argue that while he has questioned the scientific consensus on global climate change, he does not deny that it is real. Perry also launched ambitious wind power projects as governor.

“Perry possess a very strong energy background and has a track record of proven executive leadership,” said Texas U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a former Texas A&M classmate who worked on Perry’s 2016 presidential bid.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who succeed Perry, applauded the Texas stamp on the Trump administration that will be brought by Perry and ExxonMobil Chief Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of state. “They carry values that Texans think are important - less regulation, more opportunity,” he said.

To Perry’s critics, his selection to head the Energy Department recalls his 2011 presidential debate gaffe, when he was unable to name it as one of three of the government agencies he proposed to eliminate. The failure became known as his “oops” moment, which, like his turn on Dancing with the Stars, will likely be brought up by political opponents who say he is not up to the job.

“Rick Perry might be uniquely unqualified to run the Department of Energy,” said Benjamin Schreiber, climate and energy director for Friends of the Earth, one of several activist groups that plan to oppose his nomination.

The Democratic National Committee urged the Senate to reject Perry’s nomination, noting that it could be a setback for solar and wind energy, conservation programs, and the implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal, in which Moniz played a leading role, and which Trump ardently opposes.

But some say Perry could be a moderating force in the Trump administration. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, energy secretary in the Clinton administration, described Perry as “a sensible choice compared to some of the other cabinet appointees. You need a big political presence and somebody with a megaphone in that department because of all the missions and its vast, sprawling bureaucracies.”

Richardson knows Perry well: He was governor for eight years while Perry was governor of Texas. Like Perry, Richardson ran for his party’s presidential nomination, losing out in 2008 when Barack Obama won the White House.

While praising Perry as “a compromiser and dealmaker,” Richardson said in an interview he worries about the former Texas governor’s ties to the oil and gas industry and his penchant for disparaging climate scientists.

Richardson said Perry could swiftly boost his standing at the Energy Department by pushing back against Trump transition team members' requests for details from federal agencies on employees involved in climate research. The Energy Department has refused thus far to comply.

“He should just stop that in its tracks,” Richardson said. “This sounds to me like a witch hunt that is going to raise havoc with the nonpolitical bureaucracy at DOE that Rick is going to need to run that department.”

Perry also would inherit the decades-long problem of storing highly radioactive nuclear waste from reactors, 70,000 tons of which have accumulated over the years at the sites of 99 operating nuclear reactors and those decommissioned.

Nevada’s Yucca Mountain has been favored for decades by the nuclear industry, and by 1998 the government was to have begun storing spent fuel 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas under legislation passed by Congress 11 years earlier.

But the storage has remained blocked amid dozens of studies, ongoing litigation and staunch opposition from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is retiring.

Trump has yet to take a public position on Yucca Mountain, telling an audience in battleground Nevada just before the election that he is “going to take a look at it.” His business-friendly administration will be pressed by the nuclear industry to revive the project.

At the same time, many supporters of Yucca Mountain storage are pushing to establish a temporary site for spent fuel storage like the one proposed in Andrews County, Texas.

As governor, Perry pressed to win support for high-level nuclear waste storage in West Texas, writing in a 2014 letter to then Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus that “it is time for Texas to act, particularly since New Mexico is seeking to be federally designated for high level waste disposal.”